Expert group to create new CPD standards for teachers

An independent group of teachers, school leaders and education experts has been created to establish what constitutes effective CPD in schools.

An independent group of teachers, school leaders and education experts has been created to establish what constitutes effective CPD in schools.

The CPD Expert Group will develop a new Standard for Teachers’ Professional Development, which is to sit alongside the existing Teachers’ Standards.

The Department for Education (DfE) has said that this new standard, due to be published in early 2016, will not be statutory.

The DfE has also charged the group with helping teachers and providers to “understand aspects of good-quality CPD” and clarifying “common misconceptions”.

The group, which is to be chaired by David Weston, CEO of the Teacher Development Trust, will consider national and international research and have the power to call for expert advice and evidence.

The group’s membership includes a number of teachers and school leaders, as well as other educationalists including Rob Coe, professor of education and director at the CEM Centre in Durham, and Philippa Cordingley, founder and CEO of the Centre for the Use of Research and Evidence in Education.

Mr Weston said: “I and the other members of the group will be listening carefully and working together with the wider profession to help set a respected and constructively challenging standard for the professional development of all teachers.

“We want to articulate this clearly, in a way that will help leaders, teachers and other stakeholders to develop practice that ultimately helps more teachers thrive and more young people succeed.

“I am keen to ensure that our work is underpinned by the existing and emerging research about the use of evidence and teachers’ professional development.”

The group was announced by the DfE last week as part of a number of initiatives designed to boost CPD and the status of teaching.

These included a £5 million injection to help the first phase of a new professional development fund, which will be aimed at supporting more high-quality and evidence-based CPD programmes to be delivered by the network of around 700 Teaching Schools.

Also in the pipeline are plans for a CPD online portal, allowing teachers to access and share “properly evaluated and quality-assured evidence and research about the approaches to professional development that will deliver the most impact”.

The DfE also confirmed that it would be contributing “significant funding” to the Claim Your College consortium as it bids to establish an independent College of Teaching.

A statement from the Claim Your College consortium said: “We welcome the government’s support for our work and we have always been clear that we could only accept a no strings grant.”

It added: “While we need to work through the detail, we are very encouraged by this announcement.”